Clannad: Визуальная новелла о жизни Томои Оказаки

2004 Japanese visual novel

Clannad is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key and released on April 28, 2004, for Windows. While both of Key's first two previous works, Kanon and Air, had been released first as adult games and then censored for the younger market, Clannad was specifically made for all ages. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles. An English version for Windows was released on Steam by Sekai Project in 2015. The story follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, from adolescence to adulthood. As an average high school student, he meets many people in his last year at school, including five girls, whose individual problems he helps resolve, and his life is further detailed after graduating from high school. The gameplay of Clannad follows a plot that branches into different scenarios based on various courses of interaction by the player character. The game was ranked as the best selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Key went on to produce an adult spin off titled Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life in November 2005, which expanded on the scenario of Tomoyo Sakagami, one of the five heroines from Clannad. Clannad has made several transitions to other media. There have been four manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works, Flex Comix, Fujimi Shobo and Jive. Comic anthologies, light novels and art books have also been published, as have audio dramas and several albums of music. An animated film adaptation by Toei Animation was released in September 2007, followed by two anime television series including two original video animation (OVA) episodes by Kyoto Animation produced between 2007 and 2009. Both anime series and their accompanying OVAs are licensed by Sentai Filmworks and were released in North America in 2009. The animated adaptations have received high sales figures in Japan as well as critical acclaim abroad.

Clannad is a drama and romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. Clannad follows a branching plot line with multiple endings; depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are six main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, five which are initially available. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player must replay the game multiple times and make different choices to change the plot progression. When first playing the game, the scenarios for all five heroines and additional smaller scenarios are available in what is called the School Life story arc. When the player completes a character's scenario, he or she receives an orb of light. When eight of these lights are obtained, the game's second story arc, called After Story, is made available. One of the lights disappears during School Life, but reappears in After Story. Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Kotomi have no siblings, though their parents are major factors in their stories. Nagisa's story was written to incorporate what Maeda described as a "perfect family" with a focus on mental consciousness. The arrange album, a short music CD that contained remixed versions of songs in the game, that was bundled with the original game release was titled Mabinogi, which was a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts.

The player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki, the protagonist of Clannad. Tomoya has been labeled a delinquent; at the beginning of the story, he even expresses hatred toward the city he has lived in all his life where Clannad is set. He is very straightforward in his comments to others and will not hesitate to speak his mind, even if he comes off as rude during such times. Despite this, Tomoya is loyal to his friends, and has been known to dedicate himself for those around him in need of help or support. He generally has a selfless personality and does not ask much from others in return for what he does for them. The last heroine in Clannad is a first year student named Fuko Ibuki who is hyperactive and childish, before she met Tomoya, was generally seen alone by herself making wood carvings of starfish with a small knife to give to others as presents. Fuko is extremely enthralled by starfish, or things that are star shaped, and will often go into short euphoric bouts where her awareness of her surroundings is completely overtaken. Miracle Mikipon, Mochisuke, Na Ga, and Shinory supplemented the computer graphics. Torino provided the background art. Maeda noted that he exceeded his writing ability when writing most of the scenarios in Clannad, and equates Clannads writing process as a "wall that I will never be able to get over again." While at the beginning Maeda felt he was prepared, the entire game's story started to increase to a level Maeda never predicted, and Suzumoto noted that it approximately doubled in size from the original projected length. Suzumoto attributed the increase due to the lengthening structure of the game's base scenario which caused the 'branch' scenarios to increase as well.

Key announced in 2001 a release date of 2002 for Clannad and, after several postponements, Clannad was released on April 28, 2004, as a limited edition version, playable on a Windows PC as a DVD. The limited edition came bundled with the remix album Mabinogi remixing background music tracks featured in the visual novel. Clannad Full Voice was re released by Key under the name Clannad on July 31, 2009, in a box set containing five other Key visual novels called Key 10th Memorial Box. An updated version compatible for Windows 7 PCs titled Clannad Memorial Edition was released on May 28, 2010. Clannad was released for Windows on Steam by Sekai Project in English on November 23, 2015. In November 2014, Sekai Project used the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to raise funds to produce the English translation of Clannad. After less than 24 hours, the project reached its goal of US$140,000. When the Kickstarter campaign reached its US$320,000 stretch goal, Sekai Project announced that they would also be translating and releasing the Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de side stories for Windows. Overall, the Kickstarter campaign raised US$541,161, exceeding all of its stretch goals. The first consumer console port of the game was released for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) on February 23, 2006, by Interchannel. The PS2 version was re released as a "Best" version on July 30, 2009. The PS2 version was bundled in a "Key 3 Part Work Premium Box" package together with the PS2 versions of Kanon and Air released on July 30, 2009. An Xbox 360 version was released on August 28, 2008, also by Prototype. A PlayStation 3 (PS3) version was released by Prototype on April 21, 2011. A downloadable version of the PS3 release via the PlayStation Store was released by Prototype on February 14, 2013. A version produced by NTT DoCoMo playable on FOMA mobile phones was released by Prototype through VisualArt's Motto on November 26, 2007. Prototype later released a version playable on SoftBank 3G phones on January 16, 2008. A version playable on Android devices was released on September 18, 2012. A PlayStation Portable (PSP) version of the game was released in Japan on May 29, 2008, by Prototype, which included the additions from the Windows full voice version. The limited edition release of the PSP and Xbox 360 versions came bundled with a "digest" edition of the drama CD series released by Prototype containing five separate stories each; the CD bundled with the PSP release is different from the CD bundled with the Xbox 360 version. Prototype released a PlayStation 4 port on June 14, 2018, with text support for both Japanese and English. Prototype released a Nintendo Switch port on July 4, 2019, again with text support for both Japanese and English, and a digital release of the game became available on the Nintendo eShop on the same day. A physical release of the Switch port will receive a limited physical release in a regular and collector's edition via Limited Run Games for a six week preorder period from April 14 to May 29, 2020.